I once heard the
founder of CD Baby, Derek Sivers, tell the story of a well known record label
that used to screen prospective artists based on how well they followed up on
their submissions.If someone called up
this particular label and asked how to submit their music they would be given
the label’s address to mail their CD to.Once the label received their initial submission their CD would go into
a bin and would sit there until…. they followed up and inquired about their
submission.At this point it would go
into bin #2 and it would sit there until…. they followed up again.Finally, if the artist made it this far their
music would go into yet a third bin where someone would actually listen to it.

I don’t think that
most music licensing companies have this sort of intense and deliberate method
of filtering out prospective artists.
But nonetheless, following up on your submissions is vitally
important. Many music publishers and
music libraries within the music licensing business are small companies with
just a handful of people running the entire company. It’s not uncommon for a typical music
publisher to receive several hundred submissions a week. There are a lot more songwriters than there
are publishers.

Often times when you
submit your music to someone and don’t hear back it’s simply because they haven’t
heard your music yet. A friendly
reminder that you’ve sent your music and are awaiting a response goes a long
way. If you haven’t heard back from
someone wait a few weeks and follow up.
Many times this is actually helpful, because it reminds whomever you’ve sent your
music to that you are waiting for them to get back to you.

As my publisher often
says “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
If you have to choose between erring on the side of being patient or
persistent, err on the side of persistence.
Patient wheels don’t get grease, squeaky wheels do!